How much exercise does your dog get?

walks don't do anything for my dogs so we don't generally have them.  On work days we have an hour of wild dog playing in the yard every morning, interspersed with frisbee and training games. At night we go for an hour off-leash run, and then after supper if the weather's decent the dogs usually spend a few hours romping around in the yard together, and the more energetic dogs get some frisbee time in (glow in the dark frisbees are a wonderful invention). On weekends we do more-- hiking, biking, pulling the scooter, endless frisbee games, sometimes agility trials.

On a normal day, we go out for about an hour in the morning and that's usually hiking in a nearby park where she can run around like crazy and explore and harass squirrels. At night we go out for another 45 minutes-1 hour and that's mostly her playing with other dogs at the beach. Almost all of this is off-leash and in terms of distance, I end up walking about 5-6 miles total. Some days we go out longer, some days we stay out for 3 hours at a time, some days we skip a walk if the weather is really bad or I'm sick. Sometimes she also goes walking on errands around the neighbourhood with me, but that's more for socialization than exercise.

On days when we miss a walk I make up for it by doing extra indoor training, games, tug, etc.

Ball chasing is Floyd's best friend. He needs at least two sessions of 20 minutes or so a day with the go-frrr-it (it goes much further) and he's in a full out sprint with each throw. They all get at least two 15-20 minute leashed walks together. That's about right for Wolfgang's dysplasia and then Tasha gets about 30-45 minute walk by herself. They also play together in the yard.
 
On weekends they get to play off leash at the school. Usually, but not always there are other dogs involved and they get to go see Grandma and her dogs at least once a week.
 
They are between 5 1/2 and 7 years old.

Just out of curiosity, do you walk her on a retractable or regular leash?

Regular 4 foot leash. Cherokee on a longer or retractable leash is not a good thing. I actually took her to the beach once on a retractable leash. We sat as far away from other dogs as possible while still being on the dog beach (can't have dogs on the rest of the beach). We were just hanging outm sitting on the sand (she won't go near the water), when suddenly she caught sight of another dog having fun (she's the fun police!), running around, fetching, and got mad, so tried to go after it. Leash didn't stop her, even though it was locked, and when she got to the end of it, it just broke, so there I stood holding the handle while my dog is tearing across the beach with a 20 foot thin rope attached to her, when some surfer guy, with ridiculously good reflexes apparently, reaches out and grabs what's left of the leash. D'oh. That's the last time she wore a retractable leash, and the last time she went to the beach. []

Thanks for sharing and the suggestions everyone. I'm gonna go check out the park by my house tomorrow and see if there's a semi-closed off baseball field or something I could let her loose in sometimes. I don't know what else to do besides keep trying to desensitize her.

I've considered letting her run beside me while I'm on my bike or rollerblading, but I think I'm too scared she'd pull me down. She might be okay, because we've run a few times, and she didn't react to other dogs while running, but I'm not sure, it's rather scary.
 
Oh, and she's 8, btw, I don't want everyone thinking she's some super young dog not getting enough exercise.

Rocky gets to run, mostly off-leash for about an hour and half each day. We have a huge meadow by our house and we jog on the trails almost everyday. Theres a lot of other pups out there too, so we usually just walk with them. He falls asleep right when we get home. It's great exercise and socialization for him! We love it!!

My dog Hank is half lab & half basenji - so he's a really active breed (just turned 2).  Unfortunately for him, we live in a townhouse, so there's no fenced yard.  During the week, he gets 2 full walks per day of about 20 minutes each.  Plus, most nights, we'll do some hardcore wrestling for another 15-30 minutes (which gets me way more tired than him).

Once, sometimes twice, per week he'll spend 8-9 hours at doggie day care.  That really wipes him out.

Then on weekends, I try to take him hiking or swimming for 3-4 hours.

But it's too bad that we don't have a yard because I think he could use a little more exercise and it's not always possible to spend 2 hours a day making sure he's active.

Eric Shannon

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